Turkish youth to inform European youth on Mevlana

ANA/ Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey

Wednesday, February 21, 2006

A project on introducing Mevlana -- the founder of a Sufi school of spiritual thought -- and his book "Masnavi" to European youth will be funded by the EU.

The project has been prepared by Group Tolerance, founded by the youth of the Central Anatolian province of Konya.

Speaking to Anatolia news agency, Group Tolerance's founder, Muhsin Çınar, said the group consisting of youth aged 18 to 30, was founded July 2006 and now has 15 members. Emphasizing they are making efforts to promote Turkey better abroad, Çınar said they chose Mevlana and his "Masnavi" as a starting point.

Çınar said they prepared a project for European youth after having their inspiration from the theme of tolerance, the most important value of Mevlana's philosophy.

"Our aim is to promote the Turks to the European youth with Mevlana and his 'Masnavi.'
Therefore, we prepared a project titled 'Come, come whatever you are' to introduce Mevlana and 'Masnavi' to European youth.

The $36,000 project will be funded by the EU, which will give us a financial support of 30,000 euros."

"Come, come whatever you are" will be held in Konya June 22-29.

Çınar said youth coming from Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Spain to the city will be informed on Mevlana and "Masnavi" and the youth will have a chance to get to know the Turks better.

Çınar emphasized the guests will pay visits to the Mevlana Museum as well as to the tourist and historical sites including Çatalhöyük and Klistra: "Thanks to the project, the youth will almost become voluntary messengers of culture for us. They will tell about Mevlana, Konya and Turkey as they return to their country. The administrators of the future will thus get to know us better."

Stressing they aimed to promote different cultures and introducing the Mevlana culture to common groups from different countries, Çınar added: "We believe that when youth are separated, this is an obstacle of culture. This will be overcome by an exchange of culture between them.

We hope prejudices stemming from Islamophobia today will be eradicated by tolerance, which has an important place in Mevlana's teachings."